A wide variety of surgical drapes having various sized openings (hereinafter referred to as"fenestrations") which provide access to the surgical site are available for use by the health care provider. The drapes can comprise simple rectangular sheets of material or can comprise elaborate shapes of material having specialized function.
In general, surgical drapes may be separated into two main classes (reusable or disposable). Reusable linen or cloth drapes are designed to be laundered after use and sterilized again for use in a subsequent operation. In some cases the reusable drape is fitted with specialized fluid collection pouches and/or incise drape materials in the operating theater. After the drape has been used, these devices are preferably removed prior to the drape being laundered. Unfortunately, the pouches or incise materials are often adhered to the reusable drape fabric and are not removed easily from the drape without leaving an adhesive residue on the drape. This adhesive residue is difficult to remove by conventional laundry procedures. Disposable drapes constitute the other class of drapes. These drapes are designed to be used once and then destroyed. A wide variety of sizes and shapes are available. Unfortunately, the large number of specialized sizes and shapes creates an inventory problem for the hospital. To lessen the inventory problem a universal draping technique has been developed using four"panels" (or"sheets") of fabric. This technique (sometimes referred to as"squaring off" the incision site) may be practiced using either reusable or disposable drape fabrics. Each panel is used to cover a portion of the patient, with the panels arranged in such a manner as to define a opening around the surgical site. While this technique lessens the number and variety of surgical drapes needed in the hospital inventory, there still exists some disadvantages to this technique that have not been adequately addressed.
Notably, when the universal drape technique is used without an incise drape material the technique fails to adequately seal the drape edge to the surgical site. As a result any fluids emanating from the surgical site are apt to flow under the drapes and create an unsanitary mess. In addition, when the universal drape technique is used with reusable linen fabrics, and an incise drape material is employed, the aforementioned laundry problem remains unsolved (i.e., the incise drape material may leave adhesive residue on the linens). It would be desired to produce a universal surgical drape and draping technique which solves these problems and is economical to produce.